pose trees, home gardens, fast growing nitrogen fixing trees, and others. As
of this date, only agroforestry appears as a descriptor term in the two large
agricultural thesauri, the AGROVOC, and the CAB Thesaurus [9, 16].
The near complete absence of usage of these terms in bibliographic
description, even today, reduces the effectiveness of computerized agricultural
data bases as a source of information and knowledge about agroforestry.
Classification
Classifying information about agroforestry is not the same thing as classifying
agroforestry systems and practices. The latter are covered elsewhere [12].
The classification of agroforestry information presented in Table 2 is
based on the nature of the literature and the definition of the subject as well
as the needs that researchers and development planners have expressed for
information about agroforestry.
What the classification scheme proposed here does not underline is the
relative importance of various items in the classification in the literature.
Based on requests received, information on trees for agroforestry is of
primary interest.
Concepts from other land use systems
While agroforestry is now benefiting from increased research, the methods
and approaches used are derived from elsewhere. Nearly all agroforesters
were either foresters, agronomists, social scientists or livestock scientists first
and the methods they use have been adapted for agroforestry applications.
The literature reflects this.
Potential of agroforestry
The concept of agroforestry is intellectually attractive for the reasons mentioned
previously. A 'band-wagon' effect had been created that was echoed
in the literature of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The writings are characterized
by a lack of experimental data and emphasis on 'what if' interventions
that realize the benefits of agroforestry. More than 43 titles out of 531
in the first draft of the abstract bibliography fall into this category. As the
discipline matures and more primary research journals publish the results of
agroforestry experiments, this aspect of the literature will become less
important.